Amid strong applause, Fouzi Lekjaa, the newest addition to the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), a component of the governing majority, co-chaired a party meeting in Agadir on Sunday, held in the electoral stronghold of Aziz Akhannouch. This marked his first public appearance under the PAM banner, where he called on the party to adhere to the vision outlined by King Mohammed VI.
The meeting primarily focused on the party’s organizational structure and its preparations for the legislative elections scheduled for Wednesday, September 23, 2026. During the event, Lekjaa delivered his first speech as a member of the PAM political bureau, emphasizing that the timing of his membership — whether early or late — was secondary to the significant challenges confronting the party.
“Our country needs ideas to discuss projects and proposals in order to address the real problems facing our country,” Fouzi Lekjaa stated, adding that King Mohammed VI’s latest speech had charted the course the nation should follow.
For his part, Samir Goudar, another PAM leader, sharply responded to criticism from Aziz Akhannouch, the Head of Government, regarding what Akhannouch described as the PAM’s late “transfer window” following Lekjaa’s decision to join the Tractor Party.
Samir Goudar, head of the PAM’s organizational affairs, informed attendees that Fatima-Zahra El Mansouri, a member of the party’s collective leadership, “informed me a year ago that she had already started talks with the person concerned about joining the PAM.”
Through these remarks, Goudar sought to clarify that the Minister Delegate in charge of the Budget’s arrival was not a last-minute decision, as some had suggested. On the contrary, he asserted, “it had been prepared in advance.”
Nevertheless, observers note that the rift between the PAM and the National Rally of Independents (RNI) appears to have already materialized, just over a month before the end of the government’s mandate and the September 23 legislative elections.
By making his first public appearance under the PAM banner, Fouzi Lekjaa introduces a new dimension to the Tractor Party’s electoral strategy. His meeting in Agadir, Akhannouch’s electoral stronghold, also confirms that the competition among the governing majority’s allies has now entered an open phase, with each public appearance increasingly resembling an electoral campaign.
